Emails are an efficient way of communicating with others across the globe and getting things done. The problem, however, is that many email-senders do not always fully internalize the “time costs” that their emails impose on the recipients of such emails. From an economic perspective, one could argue that such senders generate negative “email externalities” when the time costs of their superfluous emails exceed the benefits. This is especially true of spammers and people who like to hit “Reply-All.” Our strategy for dealing with such email externalities is to check our emails only during designated times of the day … and never on week-ends. What’s yours?

Just Say No!